Thordis - District of Saanich

TWIN OAKS
1525 Oak crest Drive
Ronald & Catharine McRae, Owners; 1892-93
Built 1892-93, Twin
Oaks is a prime
example of the elegance and
sophistication of the Queen
Anne Revival style, prominently
situated at an elevated site with
the front of the home enjoying
an unobstructed view south
over Victoria to the Olympic
Peninsula. Built as a farmhouse,
this house is also significant
as a reminder of the area’s
agricultural past. The exterior
is in notably original condition,
and missing elements have been
sympathetically restored. Twoand-one-half-storeys
in height,
the house has an asymmetrical
plan with a picturesque hipped
and gabled roof. The foundation
walls are the original brick. Gabled
wings on the south and west sides have lower level bay windows joined by
a wraparound verandah, with lathe-turned columns, scroll-cut gingerbread
brackets and spindles in the frieze. The elaborate exterior has wooden
drop siding, fish-scale shingle siding in the attic gables,
coursed shingled banding and window surrounds with
cornice and sills. The doors, with multi-paned glazing,
nine-paned attic windows, and single and doubleassembly
wooden-sash windows are all original.
There are two early, one-storey additions at rear that
face the street. Associated landscape features on the
lot include mature specimen trees such as sequoia,
cedars, willows and poplars and perennial herbaceous
species.
The pioneering McRae family owned this house for
over 100 years. In 1875, Ronald Christopher McRae
(1844-1928) emigrated from Scotland to farm in
the Nicola Valley. Catherine Ann McDonald (1849-
1911) was from a family of United Empire Loyalists in
Glengarry, Ontario. She came by caravan across the
plains and through the mountains to marry Ronald at
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Victoria on july
15, 1877. After farming in the Nicola Valley for 11
years, the McRaes moved to Saanich in 1887, started
a dairy farm they called Twin Oaks, and lived in an
South & West façades with members of McRae
family, c.1895 [McRae Family Photo]
old house on the property. A contractor began building their new house in
1892, and they moved in on October 6, 1893. They bought the furnishings
for their home from Weiler Brothers in Victoria. Their son Christopher
settled near them after he was married in 1907 (see 3291 Cedar Hill
Road). Though now surrounded by low-density suburban development,
Twin Oaks was surrounded by farmland for much of its history, with their
large property extending to Richmond Road. The land was subdivided first
in 1907 with a portion sold to the University School (now St. Michael’s
School, see 3400 Richmond Road) and a final time in the early1950s when
4.5 hectares were sold for the adjacent development of Oak Crest Drive.
Christopher McRae’s daughter Thyra and her husband, Ernest Gyles,
continued the McRae family tenure of the house from 1938 to the 1990s.
(The Ronald McRaes were not related to the George McRaes of 1445
Ocean View Road).
Saanich Heritage Register 2008 - Shelbourne 169